My guilty pleasure YA tropes

Back in May, I made a post about my least favourite tropes in YA. I thought it was only right to balance the scales by also making a list of my favourite, most ridiculously indulgent tropes too. These aren’t the ones which never happen, which I would love to see more of….. these are the ones I see a lot, but somehow still can’t get enough of.

You know what I’m talking about.

Anything that makes you do this when you read it.

Fair warning: these are mainly love based, because I am a shamelessly romantic sap. Let’s get right to it, shall we?

friends who don’t realise they’re actually in love with each other until………THEY DO? AND IT’S AMAZING?

near-death experiences? the kind where the characters are all “oh we’d better kiss now, no big deal” EXCEPT IT TOTALLY IS

related: characters sacrificing themselves for people they have a secret, carefully cultivated, soul-consuming unrequited love for…….

……….and the awkwardness afterwards when they don’t actually die in their rescue attempt, so now their object of affection knows they are madly in love with them. This trope is just…….give it to me!!

bookworms coming into their own and totally kicking ass, to the shock and awe of everyone they know

dragons. (and just talking animals in general)

SECRETLY ROYALTY. I don’t even care! I want all of it!! All of the princesses sneaking off in disguise to ~explore the world~, and all of the thieves who turn out to be long lost princes. I need more!!

kissing in the rain. IN! THE! RAIN!! I don’t know why this is so irresistible. But every single time, it melts my heart.

finding hidden things? like old letters, secret rooms in old houses, magical kingdoms in wardrobes, dormant ley lines etc. I will read ten million novels about teenagers trying to follow instructions from ancient (possibly magical) maps to find welsh kings

nervous new boyfriends being introduced to outwardly disapproving fathers, who are really just acting intimidating to mess with them!!!! gleeful fathers and embarrassed daughters!! yessss!!!!!!

FORBIDDEN LOVE. Oh, these two characters can’t ever be together for plot reasons? Look at that: I ship them. I ship them so much.

It HURTS SO GOOD

seemingly grumpy and angry boys who are really just shy sweethearts trying and failing to hide how nervous they are

people who hate each other being paired up for school projects

and their hate quickly turning into love, obviously

ARCH NEMESES. platonic or romantic, if there’s a pair of competitive rivals then I am………there

wise old gentleman wizards.

annoying younger siblings!!

I think I’m going to stop there, because otherwise I’ll be listing things all day (and I have work to do). In summary:

If there isn’t a tumblr meme perfect for your blog topic, you aren’t trying hard enough.

In other news: It was YALC last week! I had an amazing time, especially getting to see lots of authors and bloggers in person for the first time, and catch up with old friends. I also got to hang out with an enormous number of Claire’s Coven (authors with the same agent as me!)